DMM 4回目 (with Chris, Korean-American from Chicago, lives in Chiang Mai)

1/2Mike, yeah. I bought it on Amazon the other day, like two weeks ago, you know. Yeah.

2/2It costs... fifty... fifty bucks.

1/2No, no, no. This microphone, it's all about... um...

2/2me, like, how to say, it's all about English study.

1/2Yeah, actually, you know... Yeah, yeah, because... I don't know why, yeah.

2/2Maybe it's kind of showing off stuff, you know. You don't need a this microphone for, you know, on DMM.

1/4Yes. And um, yeah, so... yeah, this is our first time meeting, and uh, actually I started uh DMM, this platform, and uh started talking again.

2/4Like, I stopped... like, I haven't been in any like English community or English speaking environment in five years. And uh...

3/4five days ago maybe, this is, you are the fourth, you know, fourth man uh talking in, on this app. And uh I'm trying to get... getting back on my, you know, the English, real hard, trying to be speaking guy again.

4/4But, you know, five years ago I was not that good, you know. But now I'm really trying to get back on, or a little bit picking up the English speaking side. Listening side is always okay.

1/3I've been... I'm always interested in listening and uh watching YouTube or podcasts in English. That doesn't...

2/3um, you know, it's not... I'm not bad at listening. But speaking side is really hard, right?

3/3To produce.

1/5So, yeah, let me start first. I'll start, yeah. So my name is Taishi and uh I'm a...

2/5I'm 34 year old Japanese. I work in the uh construction industry... big picture.

3/5And uh especially focusing on uh internal like finishing job, like interior renovation or touching up, like installing wallpaper or flooring. It's just a finish job in the industry... industry of construction.

4/5So, and I am also interested in English, of course, that's why I'm here. And uh, you know, AI is, artificial intelligence is such a... thing right now.

5/5And so I've been actually building an English app. It's... and for me to talk.

1/3Yeah, vibe... yeah, it's... you are not, I'm not a coder, you know, I don't know any language about, you know, coding.

2/3Very hard to start, you know, actually coding yourself. But today, you know, in this day and age, you can just talk to the AI, and the AI can build an app for you. So that's why I started, like maybe...

3/3uh literally... ah no... yeah, I've been in like vibe coding for a year.

1/3For a year, yeah. So, and yeah, so I'm building my app for myself, you know, there is no like income coming in, just... I'm trying...

2/3side hustle is very tough, you know... I'm trying to be like as a, how to say, on the side. Getting revenue, yeah, but it's very difficult, right?

3/3So... but at least I can learn English from my app. That's the biggest, that's a big step for me.

1/2Um... yeah, it's very complicated. I, you know, it's...

2/2I put my, you know, so-called sweat, tears, everything into that app for three or four months.

1/2And so I don't, you know, rely on some like, you know, huge Duolingo kinda like, you know, application that, you know, big companies creating. No, I'm custom... my app is customized for myself.

2/2So I can do anything that I want to, you know, serve me, serving me. So my app, so, my rules, everything is, you know, catered to myself, kind of thing.

1/2So that's, that's the biggest strong point for, for, how to say, uh, self-developer, how to say, um... just vibe coding. There's no meeting, you know, how to develop or how to, you know, all...

2/2I can decide everything. I can decide everything because this is my app and uh nobody, you know, is using it.

1/5Yeah, at the end of the day, I'm thinking, you know, in the long term, long shot, I'm trying to express or I'm trying to, um, advocate, how to say, advertise my app. And uh, yeah, hopefully it will end up in a good way, you know, money-wise or... yeah.

2/5But I'm not like trying to make a lot of bank, a lot of money, you know, from this. It's impossible, you know. But yeah, I want to be a person that trying to express or trying to...

3/5I'm just open to showing my daily struggle, grinding, when it comes to speaking side, speaking English. So that maybe end up encouraging a lot of other Japanese people who are really struggling or really making, you know, afraid of making mistakes or, you know, don't, not trying to even step up to the plate and even, you know, trying to speak at all, you know. Really, how to say, obsessed with perfection, perfection of English, kind of thing, you know.

4/5I'm like opposite, you know, I try, I just ship, you know. Yeah, and it's perfection is impossible when you, especially when it's your second language. It's, it's a pipe dream.

5/5Never gonna happen in your life. I know that.

1/5I think at the end of the day, you just have to memorize or recite, you know, memorize the sentences in English, in English sentences. That's the quickest way I guess. Because, you know, until you remember or until you trying to memorize what English native speakers actually saying, I think there is no chance.

2/5Just only, you know, Japanese English, you know... you can't break the barrier. So I'm trying to just remember, I try to just recite or speak loud in English sentences native speakers uh...

3/5say. So I make AI... you know, AI can do a lot of bulk, bulk work.

4/5So I make AI produce a lot of, actually hundreds, thousands of sentences of English. And, you know, I, you know that AI are, you know, there is grammatically perfect English AI can produce right now, in this day and age. So I can count on, I can trust AI-produced sentences.

5/5And at the same time, I'm, you know, just uh, watching YouTubes and uh, and uh, just yeah, remember, uh, memorize what native actually human speaking side, human sentences. It's just both, I'm doing the both.

1/4You know, so according to my system, I, yeah, I have like hundred thousands of words I can recite, I can, like, you know, speak out loud, you know, uh trying to memorize. And now I'm, that everything's just coming out of my mouth naturally or off the top of my head. Off the top of my head is all the words that I learned yesterday, so I'm just here now trying to ship, trying to ship out.

2/4You know, grammatical, you know, making a mistake is not my, you know, concern. Because until you can speak... speaking first.

3/4Next, you know, you can refine or yeah, maybe let the teacher, you know, correct your English. But first I have to speak. So that's my motto, yeah.

4/4That's my style.

1/2Trying to build a chunk, yeah, yeah. Just remember chunk, collocations, and just saying it. Good.

2/2Yeah.

1/4I know without, without realizing, without like... but not internalized yet. Some of them internalized perfectly.

2/4But some of them just, you know... um... not...

3/4I'm, I don't... how to say... embarrassment is the worst thing, you know, when you are speaking a second language.

4/4So I don't care about making mistakes or just, I'm trying to be uh, say, as much as I can, you know, in this, you know, 25 minutes. Just trying to speak, speak, speak. And afterwards I can review, you know, because I notice that this English, you know, DMM, like, you have access to the recording afterwards.

1/2Yeah. That's really fantastic feature. And uh, it's, you know, creeping me out or I'm so embarrassed after hearing my crazy English and broken English, but that's a part of the, you know, language progress and the speaking process.

2/2So, yeah.

1/6Yeah, you have to patch, you know, you have to like, cons... yeah, build them, you know, yeah, it's all hodgepodge, you know, all over the places. Yeah, all over the place.

2/6Yeah, I know. I have to, how to say, uh, patch everything into the uh actual meaningful sentence that I can convey in, you know, in a... how to say...

3/6yeah, I have to, yeah, I want to speak in a one topic, very deep discussion about religion or cooking or... yeah, I'm very into cooking, not great, but yeah. So, yeah, I will try.

4/6But now I'm just in a stage that I'm just remembering everything, memorizing everything. And then I'll start, you know, dig into, dig into the specific field. And uh, yeah.

5/6So yeah, but you are really uh making a, you know, how to say... uh... it's, yeah, maybe I think it's my weak point right now.

6/6I'm just memorizing, so there's no like next step.

1/2Uh, maybe at, yeah, I, yeah, I've done it maybe, you know, a few times. I don't, I don't remember, yeah. But yeah, that's...

2/2yeah, I think Daily Articles, you know, about, from this, DMM app, it's amazing topic. Really covering different topics.

1/2Yeah, coffee a lot, yeah. Actually I, you know, I wanted to do this time. I'm a little bit in decision or I'm...

2/2but now, you know, we are first time, so right, right, right. I want, I want um, self, you know, introduction, yeah, yeah.

1/3So I'm back again, so I have to kind of cultivate or also create um student-teacher relationship again. Because when I was back, you know, uh five years ago, I have a, of course, I had a, everyone had a favorite teacher, and uh we, there is... because first time just, you know, quick introduction, you know, introduction each other, that's meaning, you know, that is a just building a step, building a, you know, relationship.

2/3So not actual English deep dive conversation and uh actual studying. So I'm now, I booked four teachers, you are like the fourth one, and uh every day, you know, four days ago I started again, picked it up again. So now I'm trying, I'm searching the good teacher.

3/3And definitely you are the good teacher. I can tell.

1/3Because some English teacher, you know, right, you know... uh... yeah, I, I always uh chose native, you know, British or South Africa...

2/3yeah, yeah, they're all native guys. But some of them, you know, they're not, how to say, interested in listening to the st- you know, student. Just they are talking their, you know, stories.

3/3Oh, you know, they don't know how to teach. Just they are there to speak their, you know, own language. That's, that's not a job, you know, you are not meant for, right?

1/2But yeah, you are really, how to say, listening to me. I can feel. So thank you so much.

2/2Yeah, you have a skill. Yeah, you have a skill.

1/3Amazing. So I'll book you again. That's definite.

2/3And uh, yeah. Thank you so much. But so I want your introduction, you know.

3/3What's your story, background? And uh, yeah, I didn't check any of your, you know, I didn't read any introduction, yeah.

1/4Yeah, I'm actually a good listener, you know. I'm not, I'm here to speak, so, but that's why I'm kind of aggressive, because, you know, 25 minutes window, I have only, you know, in my, in my day, daily life, 20- this window is always all that, you know, all the only time I can speak. Right.

2/4The rest of the day, just work or just, you know, studying English, you know, listening. So speaking, you know, I can't, I have to say, I have to try something every single day, you know, new English phrases or... so here I am trying to speak.

3/4But I'm so interesting about your um, pro... you know, uh, introduction... Because you're born in Chicago, and uh your maybe your parents can't speak English or what, what...

4/4I don't know why the reason you moved... your parents...

1/5No. Construction industry is just the bottom, you know, it's... it's the bottom of the pyramid.

2/5So there's like, no trickle-down, like no money trickling down to the bottom. Yeah, no, prices are up, prices are going up. You know, my, my bonus is terrible, you know.

3/5And a lot of, you know, foreigners, you know, not from English country, English speaking country, right, right, but uh yeah, many like variety of foreigners uh, my coworkers or daily life I'm engaging with foreigners but they are not English native, just speaking different languages. Like maybe Thailand or I don't know, from from Asia, a lot of Asians. South Asian countries, yeah, south yeah.

4/5And also Vietnamese. Yeah, I see, I saw a lot of, I meet a lot of, you know, Vietnamese, they talk, they speak very good Japanese. Really?

5/5But no English conversation, yeah. They're very good at Japanese. And uh yeah, I see a lot of, you know, black people, I don't know where they come from, maybe um, Africa.

1/5Yeah, definitely from Africa then. Yeah, yeah. Africa, yeah.

2/5So my work environment is kind of like really uh, many engaging many Japanese, non-Japanese people. Right. But no English around.

3/5No English. Nobody speak English. Just, and they are here, so they are trying so hard to learn language, right, learning Japanese.

4/5Japanese. So I am here to, you know, in in a work situation, it's they, very struggling, and I very admire, respect, you know, working in a different country, right? It's very hard.

5/5Right. For, you know, not immigrant, but like you know, working, and temporarily maybe, but it's very, I respect they are, you know, doing in this country, Japan.

1/2Oh, maybe time's up. I'm not sure, but yeah, next time I'm gonna, I'm gonna book you again, definitely gonna book you again. So yeah, and uh we'll have like five or ten or many discussion, many like...

2/2I want you, I want, I want, like, book you like many times.